The game’s director denies censorship and claims that the skin change is the work of the developers. But that didn’t stop over 42,000 Stellar Blade players from signing a petition on Change.org to reverse the change…

Stellar Blade has been available in stores for a few days now. Although the debate continues to rage on social media, we are talking about a sci-fi hack-and-slash that met the expectations of the community and expert critics.

However, the latest update to the title has caught the attention of many players, so much so that a petition has been launched to reverse the changes made by Shift Up.

The latest controversy involving SB revolves around a costume called the “Holiday Rabbit”. It turns out that this cosmetic had a special appearance before its release. However, after the release of patch 1.0.02, it was slightly modified by adding an additional layer of clothing, as reported by Insider Gaming. We show a comparison below so you can judge for yourself.

This change annoyed quite a few players. A petition was soon launched on Change.org for Shift Up to reverse these changes. At the time of writing, the petition has already surpassed its first goal of 35,000 signatures and is now targeting 50,000 signatures. The campaign’s message reads: “Stellar Blade is a phenomenal new game that just launched on PlayStation 5 worldwide. But it has a problem. The content has been censored from the original trailer version posted by Sony,” – the letter begins.

“Stellar Blade is more than a game”

“We, as gamers, want this content back. We relied on it, we made the game the #1 pre-order worldwide because of it, and this is the true game we want. Stellar Blade is more than a game, it has become a cultural beacon for freedom of expression in a time where Game Publishers like Sony are censoring games more than ever. Stellar Blade was a breath of fresh air and gamer rallied behind it because it meant things were changing, getting better, and the voice of creative freedom was ringing loud and clear,” he continues.

“But for reasons unknown, the game was censored, changes were made. What we received after our good faith purchase was not the same as advertised. We believe in the game, we believe in Shift Up, and we are asking to get the game we believed in. Revert the censorship changes, patch the game, and you will find that even more gamers will join you and support you” – concludes the petition. It also explains how the developer and publisher plan to convince you. What they will do is print out the petition and physically send it to Shift Up’s Korea and Sony’s US offices.

The creators of the game also spoke

Shift Up is no stranger to social media outrage over change. Especially since it was confirmed a few days ago that it will be released uncensored in all markets. That’s why the director of Stellar Blade spoke about it at an event when asked about it, which was translated on Reddit.

Hyung-Tae Kim denies censorship and confirms that the costume change was a matter of creative vision.

“The final costume we wanted to show you is actually the costume from version 1.0.0.2. I want to clarify that this is our final product. However, I know this answer is not enough to convince our users. There’s an internal discussion about that, so I think there’s a chance we’ll be able to answer [fully] soon.” According to some users, there are more changes in the game, but this is something that the studio should confirm in the near future.

Source: Insider Gaming, Change.org, Reddit